Al-'Ankabut · Makki · ayah 13 of 69

Al-'Ankabut 29:13

وَلَيَحْمِلُنَّ أَثْقَالَهُمْ وَأَثْقَالًا مَّعَ أَثْقَالِهِمْ ۖ وَلَيُسْـَٔلُنَّ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ عَمَّا كَانُوا۟ يَفْتَرُونَ

“But they will surely carry their [own] burdens and [other] burdens along with their burdens,[1127] and they will surely be questioned on the Day of Resurrection about what they used to invent.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who offered to carry others' sins lighten no one; they carry their own loads, more loads on top, and answer for the lie.

A reflection

Carrying more, lightening no one

An apprentice at a locksmith's cuts a copy of the master key to a block of flats. He lends it to a friend. The friend has it copied for two others, who copy it again. Within a year six copies are in circulation. Each person who uses one to get in is still a trespasser. And the apprentice who cut the first key answers for every door it opened.

The previous ayah said the misleaders 'will not carry anything at all of their sins'. This one says 'they will surely carry their loads, and loads with their loads'. A theological commentator raises the obvious question. One ayah denies the carrying. The next affirms it. How do they fit?

His answer is precise. When we say someone carried a load for another, we mean the other's load got lighter. If it did not get lighter, nothing was carried for him. So the misleaders lift nothing from anyone. Every follower keeps his load in full. But the misleaders do carry: their own sins, plus new loads for misleading. The weight is not transferred. It is duplicated.

The Prophet ﷺ put the same arithmetic into words. Whoever calls to misguidance carries sin like the sins of those who follow him. That takes nothing away from their sins (Sahih Muslim).

Is it fair to answer for another person's free choice? The ayah does not say that. The misleader answers for his own act of calling, persuading and promising. That act has consequences, as a cut key has doors. The followers chose too, and they answer for their choice. Neither account reduces the other.

This is justice of a kind human courts struggle to reach. Our systems share blame out: thirty per cent here, seventy there. Allah's justice gives every party the whole of what is theirs. No one hides behind a crowd, and no one hides behind a leader.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.